GITEX 2012 INTERVIEWS ITU TELECOM World 2012 - Teletimes

and set up their stands at anexclusive InnovatorSpace.Day 2, October 15The day started with openingpanel session as an officialstart of the event, featuringdignitaries and representativesof the Leadership Summit.Dr Dr. Hamadoun I. Touréwelcomed the coming togetherof public, private and regulatorysectors, with agendas andperspectives that complement,but also conflict with eachother.During the leadership summiton innovation, MohammedNamadi Sambo, Vice Presidentof Nigeria spoke of theimportance of ITU TelecomWorld 2012 in bringing togetherpublic and private sectors withthought leaders, the shapersof future technologies andmajor media stakeholders in theglobal innovative city of Dubaito discuss, share knowledgeand build ICT solutions to theurgent challenges facing theworld.The second leadership summitof the day highlighted theimportance of ICT to savelives. Representatives fromsatellite companies Immarsat,Iridium, SATMEX and Thurayagave examples of some ofthe technical advances theyhave made that can be of usein a disaster, including manytechnologies focused ondisaster detection, warning andprevention.As part of the session, DrToure gave a number ofhumanitarian awards fromthe ITU-Development Bureauto the following governmentministries, companies andindividual including TheMinistry of Industry (Canada),The Ministry for Broadband,Communications and the DigitalEconomy(Australia), Inmarsat,Iridium, Thuraya and a personalaward for humanitarian effortswas also given to consultant,Navin Kapila.The regional CEOs roundtableinvited major industryexecutives from the MiddleEastern region to carry a livelydeliberation and exchangeof ideas from the industryprospective. Osman Sultan,CEO of du, acknowledged thedisruption currently beingexperienced by the industry,calling for it to taken seriously- but also seen as a source ofexciting new opportunities.“We are all witnessing pressureon our top line revenues asOTT players monetize more -and we find ourselves at theforefront of sector investment,but no longer at the forefrontof revenue,” he said, echoinga common sentiment amongstdelegates at ITU Telecom World2012.Mohamed Bin Isa Al-Khalifa ofBatelco, Bahrain, saw the needto reinvent and to change theway investment is monetized,with two distinct possibilities:collaborating with OTT playersto allow access to the network,or simply move to becoming anOTT player.Khaled Al Ghoneim, CEO ofSaudi Arabia’s STC Group,highlighted the need toprovide sufficient bandwidthto meet the human right tocommunication cost effectively.The layered or tiered approachwould see operators attractingrevenue from premium servicesto a minority on top of basicprovision at low or no cost.The day also staged Paneldiscussions on CloudComputing, Mobile Broadband,and Benefits of Open SourceTechnologies followed by avisionary key note by EugeneKaspersky, co-founder and CEOof anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab.Day 3, October 16The Day 3 started with BigConversation with BBC onPrivacy, Trust and Innovation.Panelists share their view onthe ambiguities as to whoowns data, which can or shouldcontrol information on the weband how open source fits withininnovation and IP: these arethe fault lines of the internetsociety, driving lack of trust andprivacy concerns.The day also called onGovernments and ICTbusinesses to MinisterialRoundtable on “TheImportance of Women in ICT”.Representing the governmentof Costa Rica, Health MinisterDaisy Maria Corrales Diazcalled for increased inclusionof women both horizontallyand vertically, building on thesuccess of countries such asCosta Rica itself, where femaleparticipation in the workforcehas risen from 20% in the 1970sto 39.4% now. ICTs are vital toreach women in their homes,in particular in rural areas, anddrive economic prosperity.Introduced as the personwho had brought theInternet to Tunisia, KhédijaGhariani, Secretary Generalof the Arab Information andCommunication TechnologyOrganisation, said, “We mustencourage women to reachposts at the level decisionmakers, in government and inthe private sector- and then wewill see results that are trulyextraordinary.”Hessa Sultan Al-Jaber, SecretaryGeneral of ictQATAR, concludeda lively and positive sessionwith a passionate appeal forsociety in general to respect forwomen and girls, as withoutthis respect, no amount ofeducation, career progressionand empowerment will see realprogress. “Change must comefrom within society, from withincommunities and from withinwomen themselves. Parents,raise your children equally!”In the second MinisterialRoundtable on ‘InternationalInternet Access and Tax’,communications andtechnology ministers andindustry leaders from acrossthe world gathered. Ministerspresent largely accepted theposition, though they alsonoted that taxation levels aresadly not always within thepowers of the communicationsand technology ministries.“There is a problem with theminister of communication andthe ministry of finance,” saidMinister for Uganda RuhakanaRugunda, “One wants lowtaxes to facilitate growth butthe finance minister is moresenior and he wants to raisemoney.”During a Panel discussionon addressing the spectrumchallenges, GSM AssociationDirector General AnneBouverot called on operators,governments and regulatorsto work together to freeup spectrum through thedigital dividend, refarmingor technology neutrality as“We need a lot of spectrumfor consumers to do whatthey want to do with mobiledevices and for economies tobenefit from that.” Competitionis welcome as a means toencourage growth and reducecosts for consumers.The Day’s visionary Keynotespeech was given by AndersLindblad, President andCEO Middle East, Ericsson.According to Anders Lindblad,his company Ericsson is atthe cutting edge of thistransformation, workingtowards a fully networkedsociety. “The interesting thingis that we [ICTs] are enteringnew ecosystems – health care,12 November 2012www.teletimesinternational.com